Corden’s ‘Late Late Show’ visits London, gets silly in Paris

File- This June 9, 2019, file photo shows host James Corden speaking at the 73rd annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Corden’s show is in London for broadcasts airing Monday to Thursday, June 17 to 20, with guests including former first lady Michelle Obama and Chris Hemsworth.(Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — When James Corden takes his “The Late Late Show” to England, he does it up royally.

He’s yet to ask Queen Elizabeth to join him, but this week’s London-based shows include British and U.S. stars including Tom Hanks and Lily James and a pre-taped segment with former first lady Michelle Obama.

It’s the third year that Corden has traveled to his native city for the CBS show, and he refused to let the task of hosting last week’s Tony Awards interfere.

“We enjoy jumping headfirst into all of these things, and tired isn’t a good enough reason,” Corden said Monday, the start of a four-night run of shows from London’s historic Central Hall Westminster. He said he counts himself “incredibly lucky” to have such opportunities.

“I don’t want to look back and go, ‘Ah, I should have made the most of that and I didn’t because I was a little bit tired,'” Corden said.

One sketch has the host competing with Chris Hemsworth to see who would be the better restaurant employee, while “Dark Phoenix” cast members Jessica Chastain, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy and Sophie Turner join Corden for a double-decker bus tour of London.

Late-night show highlights can have a significant online afterlife, and Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke” segment with Paul McCartney in his English hometown of Liverpool was a viral sensation last year.

This time around, the host is especially pleased with a new installment of his “Crosswalk: The Musical” fixture, this one featuring songs from “Les Misérables” and taped in Paris with the Arc de Triomphe as a background player.

“The whole idea of it is so silly, so stupid,” he said, happily. “However you think the Parisian residents might respond to such a thing is exactly how they did.”